BarbershopTags.com News

It is now possible to add a link to each tag where the tag's arrangement can be purchased from.

That new field can be filled in when first uploading the tag, or can be added later via the "Add Missing Details" button.

The database of tags on this website is now up to 5000 tags!  Who'd have thought there were that many tags in the world!  And that database has been compiled in only 12 years, since this site was originally launched.  Huge thanks to all the contributors!

Our website has undergone a complete facelift - its first since it was launched back in 2009 (it was starting to look a bit dated!).  The whole site has a fresh, modern look.  The most important change is that the site is now 100% mobile-friendly.

All the tags, videos and pages are still there, as before, but hopefully they'll be easier to access now.

Enjoy!

Happy Anniversary, taggers! Ten years ago today (April 5th 2009), this website was launched. We've gone from zero to 4000+ tags in those ten years. We've also had some genius programmers create smartphone apps that connect with the website's repository of tags for anywhere, on-the-go tagging, such as during afterglows. All in all, a hugely successful experiment.

Many thanks to everyone that has contributed tags and videos to the site. It would be nothing without you!

Happy birthday to us!
3400 tags in 8 years is a pretty excellent effort. Thanks to all our contributors.
 

It's now possible to upload tag videos that are located on Facebook.  Up until now, tag videos on this site could only be uploaded from YouTube.  But now it's possible to get them from Facebook as well.

When uploading a video, you simply copy-and-paste the Facebook video URL.  Instructions for locating the URL of any Facebook video are provided on that page.

Happy uploading!
 

Unfortunately, we have had to reset the ratings (1 to 5) of every tag in the database.  For the next little while, most tags will show no rating at all.

The ratings system was being abused - people repeatedly clicking "5" (or "1") in an effort to promote (or demote) certain tags.  We didn't anticipate this behaviour when we created the ratings system (very shortsighted of us), and so now we're left with no choice but to clear the ratings of ALL tags and ask that people rate tags again.  The new rating system is not able to be abused like the first one.

After a few months the rating system should be healthy and useful again.

Apologies for any inconvenience.
 

The embedded MP3 player in the site has been upgraded to one that does not require Flash in order to play the MP3 audio.  This means that all files should be playable from with iPads, iPhones, etc.

We've reached a major milestone - the BarbershopTags.com database now holds over 2,000 different tags (and over 600 videos)!!

Many thanks to all that have contributed, especially the "Top 20", below.

Keep 'em coming!  Hopefully we'll reach 10,000 soon...

It is now possible to add lyrics for any tag.  These can be added at the time the tag is added to the system, or they can be added by submitting them to us via the "Add missing details" button.

These lyrics are searchable, meaning that if you don't know the title of a tag, but know the lyrics, you can still find the tag!

This new field has been included in the API.

We now have a second iPhone app, called "Barbershop Tags" by Adams Development. You can find it here.

We now have a second iPhone app, called "Afterglow" and developed Jon Baker. You can find it here.

Ingo Böhme has developed an app for the iPhone that uses the tags on this site.  You can find it here.  At present there are only 20 tags available through this app, but the next version will provide access to all the tags on this site.

You can now discuss any tag on the site.  We have enabled a new comments system that allows threaded discussions, powered by Disqus.

No login is required to post a comment.  Note that logging into this site does not automatically log you into the comments system, nor vice versa (they are separate systems).

Mike Olson has created our second smartphone app - this one for the Android platform.

Read all about it on his blog page.

Announcing the first smartphone app to be developed using our API:

Tag Master by DePollSoft - for the Windows Mobile 7 platform

Use it to access all the tags on our site - including sheet music and learning tracks - direct from your smartphone!  Take your phone along to the next afterglow and teach everyone your favorite tags, simply by holding your phone in front of each singer and playing them their part.

The BarbershopTags.com Developers' API has been updated to version 1.2.

New in this version:

• Each tag's list of videos is now provided in the returned XML
• A new fldlist parameter allows you to specify which fields you wish to receive in the XML
• The URL in the XML for each downloadable file (learning tracks, sheet music, etc) has been changed so that the downloading of these files by external applications contributes to each tag's "downloaded" count.  So as the file's type (MP3, MIDI, etc) is not obscured by this, an extra "type" attribute has been added to each file's field
• A new client parameter allows you to specify the name of your application

For full details, please visit our API page.

We are pleased to announce the launch of our Developers' API.

An API (Application Programming Interface) has been developed for the BarbershopTags.com website, to allow programmers to develop applications for other platforms, such as the iPhone, Android smartphones, and the like.

If you are a programmer, and would like to develop an application for the iPhone, Android smartphone or any other platform, please visit our new API page.

Darwin "Tag Master" Scheel, from Columbia River Chorus, has compiled an excellent document:  Barbershop Tag Teaching Guidelines.  He has been gracious enough to share that document with us, and we are now able to make that document available to all BarbershopTags.com site visitors and members.

Feel free to download the appropriate version below...

	Download the Barbershop Tag Teaching Guidelines for Men (273kb)
	Download the Barbershop Tag Teaching Guidelines for Women (326kb)

BarbershopTags.com is now on Facebook.

For a long time now, there has been a very popular group on Facebook called "Barbershop Tags", where tag singers from around the world can discuss tag singing, share tags with each other, and help each other find tags.  That group never had an "official" website.  Meanwhile, www.BarbershopTags.com has never had an "official" discussion channel, where its members can discuss the tags on the site.

Now, thanks to discussions between Donya Metzger and our own site's administrators, the two most popular tag destinations on the Internet have joined forces.  This site has become the official website of the Barbershop Tags Facebook group, whilst new Facebook links have been integrated into this site.  You can now go straight to the Facebook group from the big icon in the left margin, and every tag has a new link that allows you to create a discussion about that tag on the Facebook discussion board.

Now there's an excellent reason for anyone to become a member of BarbershopTags.com (not just those that want to upload tags and videos):  Members can now collect their favorite tags on their Member Home page.

To add a page to your favorites collection, look for the "Add to Favorites" button on each tag's page (only when you're logged in).